"It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters go up against the junior squad from Miss Porter’s School..."

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The Dreamer Goes Down For The Count

by Walter Russell Mead

I had never thought there were many similarities between the pleasure-loving Charles II of England and the more upright Barack Obama until this week.  Listening to his speeches on the Middle East at the State Department, US-Israel relations at the AIPAC annual meeting and most recently his address to the British Parliament the comparison becomes irresistible.

“Here lies our sovereign king,” wrote the Earl of Rochester about King Charles:

Whose word no man relies on.
Who never said a foolish thing
Or ever did a wise one.

This seems to capture President Obama’s Middle East problems in a nutshell.  The President’s descriptions of the situation are comprehensive and urbane.  He correctly identifies the forces at work.  He develops interesting policy ideas and approaches that address important political and moral elements of the complex problems we face.  He crafts approaches that might, with good will and deft management, bridge the gaps between the sides.  He reads thoughtful speeches full of sensible reflections.

But the last few weeks have cast him as the least competent manager of America’s Middle East diplomatic portfolio in a very long time.  He has infuriated and frustrated long term friends, but made no headway in reconciling enemies.  He has strained our ties with the established regimes without winning new friends on the Arab Street.  He has committed our forces in the strategically irrelevant backwater of Libya not, as he originally told us, for “days, not weeks” but for months not days.

Where he has failed so dramatically is in the arena he himself has so frequently identified as vital: the search for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.  His record of grotesque, humiliating and total diplomatic failure in his dealings with Prime Minister Netanyahu has few parallels in American history.  Three times he has gone up against Netanyahu; three times he has ingloriously failed.  This last defeat — Netanyahu’s deadly, devastating speech to Congress in which he eviscerated President Obama’s foreign policy to prolonged and repeated standing ovations by members of both parties —   may have been the single most stunning and effective public rebuke to an American President a foreign leader has ever delivered.

Netanyahu beat Obama like a red-headed stepchild; he played him like a fiddle; he pounded him like a big brass drum.  The Prime Minister of Israel danced rings around his arrogant, professorial opponent.  It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters go up against the junior squad from Miss Porter’s School; like watching Harvard play Texas A&M, like watching Bambi meet Godzilla — or Bill Clinton run against Bob Dole.

 

The Prime Minister mopped the floor with our guy.  Obama made his ’67 speech; Bibi ripped him to shreds.  Obama goes to AIPAC, nervous, off-balance, backing and filling.  Then Bibi drops the C-Bomb*, demonstrating to the whole world that the Prime Minister of Israel has substantially more support in both the House and the Senate than the President of the United States.

President Obama’s new Middle East policy, intended to liquidate the wreckage resulting from his old policy and get the President somehow onto firmer ground, lies in ruins even before it could be launched.  He had dropped the George Mitchell approach, refused to lay out his own set of parameters for settling the conflict, and accepted some important Israeli red lines — but for some reason he chose not to follow through with the logic of these decisions and offer Netanyahu a reset button.

As so often in the past, but catastrophically this time, he found the “sour spot”: the position that angers everyone and pleases none.  He moved close enough to the Israelis to infuriate the Palestinians while keeping the Israelis at too great a distance to earn their trust.  One can argue (correctly in my view) that US policy must at some level distance itself from the agendas of both parties to help bring peace.  But that has to be done carefully, and to make it work one first needs to win their trust.  Obama lost the trust of the Israelis early in the administration and never earned it back; he lost the Palestinians when he was unable to deliver Israeli concessions he led them to expect.

The President is now wandering across Europe seeking to mend fences with allies (Britain, France, Poland) he had earlier neglected and/or offended; at home, his authority and credibility have been holed below the waterline.  Everyone who followed the events of the last week knows that the President has lost control of the American-Israeli relationship and that he has no near-term prospects of rescuing the peace process.  The Israelis, the Palestinians and the US Congress have all rejected his leadership.  Peace processes are generally good things even if they seldom bring peace; one hopes the President can find a way to relaunch American diplomacy on this issue but for now he seems to have reached a dead end — and to have allowd himself to be fatally tagged as too pro-Israel to win the affection of the Europeans and Arabs, and too pro-Palestinian to be trusted either by Israel or by many of the Americans who support it.

Internationally, this matters a great deal; domestically it matters even more.  The President has significantly less capacity to act than he did a week ago.  The Bin Laden dividend, already cruelly diminished by what The Daily Caller said was the administration’s “victory lap in a clown car”, is now history.  The GOP, in trouble recently as voters recoil from what many see as Republican extremism on issues like Medicare and public unions, will be able to use the national security card in new and potent ways.

As the stunning and overwhelming response to Prime Minister Netanyahu in Congress showed, Israel matters in American politics like almost no other country on earth.  Well beyond the American Jewish and the Protestant fundamentalist communities, the people and the story of Israel stir some of the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the American soul.  The idea of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism is profoundly tied to the idea of American exceptionalism.  The belief that God favors and protects Israel is connected to the idea that God favors and protects America.

It means more.  The existence of Israel means that the God of the Bible is still watching out for the well-being of the human race.  For many American Christians who are nothing like fundamentalists, the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land and their creation of a successful, democratic state after two thousand years of oppression and exile is a clear sign that the religion of the Bible can be trusted.

Being pro-Israel matters in American mass politics because the public mind believes at a deep level that to be pro-Israel is to be pro-America and pro-faith.  Substantial numbers of voters believe that politicians who don’t ‘get’ Israel also don’t ‘get’ America and don’t ‘get’ God.  Obama’s political isolation on this issue, and the haste with which liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi left the embattled President to take the heat alone, testify to the pervasive sense in American politics that Israel is an American value.  Said the Minority Leader to the Prime Minister: “I think it’s clear that both sides of the Capitol believe you advance the cause of peace.”

President Obama probably understands this intellectually; he understands many things intellectually.  But what he can’t seem to do is to incorporate that knowledge into a politically sustainable line of policy.  The deep American sense of connection to and, yes, love of Israel limits the flexibility of any administration.  Again, the President seems to know that with his head.  But he clearly had no idea what he was up against when Bibi Netanyahu came to town.

As a result, he’s taking another ride in the clown car, and this time it isn’t a victory lap.  I hope I’m wrong, but I think the next intifada got a lot closer this week.

Editor’s Note: For further information see WRM on last night’s episode of Charlie Rose.

*The C-Bomb means Congress.

 

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Comments

[George Pal]

Americans should recall Israel lost God’s favor and protection and lost Israel. If we are yet in God’s favor and under his protection I’d not like to see Him irked - as I am.

[BannedJake]

Banned.

[BannedJake]

Easy to circumvent ban.

Right. Mead. I should have seen that coming.

His vision of America as the polite civilizing British empire reincarnated (all savagery omitted) is eminently consistent with the delusions of this site.
But the vision empire rest on a lie that it brings democratizing values and civilization (it wasn't true for the Brits and it's as untrue for America). As Johann Hari noted in his review of "God and Gold," Mead is veritably silent on Iraq ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/books/review/Hari-t.html). As with this blog, ommitting real facts is the best way to preserve the distorted worldview (a view which seems tailor made to serve the interests of the Western power elite - who are still largely white men).

"Lord of the Flies" relies on the same con game - Golding couldn't use actual "darkies", but children suffice as metaphorical savages and the lesson is still that the civilizing influence of the British empire must be brought to the islands. Never mind that the empire visited far more violence on captured territories than the native inhabitants had ever dreamed possible or practiced.

And of course, no posting of yours would be complete without a stunning inverted invocation of highly racist imagery. So we have Obama criticized in backhanded fashion as a genteel, inexperienced young white woman confronted by big black men (and my god, the dainty picture, it's classic). That's getting to have your racism and eat it too.

[Mrs. P]

Hey George -how are you? Excellent point.

ChezJake, -drop the lie. you haven't been banned. This is professional blog - meaning published by a real publisher -Typepad- that knows how to deal with blogosphere. As all of PP's readers can easily see Typepad has assigned you a little box next to your name -yours hasn't changed. Which means you are using the same computer you've always used. Check it for yourself.

According to security - the IP number of your computer at Twentieth Century Fox in LA has not changed which is why your little box hasn't changed.

You are using the same Twentieth Century Fox computer you've always used.

[George Pal]

Good lord BannedJake, itinerant hall monitor is no position for a grown-up and sniffing about for racism with animatronic bloodhound snout is not a talent. Seek career counseling.

[ChezJake]

Yep, Georgepal. It’s good advice.

I give up.

I came back from a campaign event for a Democrat. Somebody raised a first amendment issue (wikileaks) and the candidate replied that we’d have to modify the first amendment. Okay, not really my choice to be there (I’m your anarcho-syndicalist type), but I’m thinking did I really just hear a self-advertised “eco-friendly liberal” say that. The world is upside down. One of the last great defenses of the first amendment I read was by Paul Craig Roberts (Reagan Asst. Secretary of the Treasury and Wall Street Journal columnist) – He’d be arrested if he set foot within 50 yards of a Republican event and now shows up on Russia Today (that’s irony). David Stockman (Reagan’s budget director) is one of the few people that called out Bush’s and now Obama’s larceny on behalf of the bankers and the very real need to do something about wages.

I don’t want to be this angry. I am sorry for having been this angry. It didn’t help. Someone sent me a video of Patrick McHenry calling Elizabeth Warren a liar – I don’t agree with everything she suggests, but I don’t think her integrity’s really at issue and that guy oughta be run outta town. But, what I’ve been doing isn’t the opposite of that guy.

Can I ask, I guess rhetorically, why are women so vicious to one another? Like your armpit thing. At this event, I listened to a woman rip into someone across the room for her outfit. In my last year of high school, there was a freshman girl in an English class that I T.A.’d. I didn’t really know her, but she seemed cute, genial, good solid B student (I graded the quizzes). She started to dress oddly, no more t-shirts, skirts, shorts. Covered everything up all the time. Turned out she was a target of the cheerleading squad. Social isolation. She finally took all her clothes off at the end of the year when she got invited to a party and desperate to be included and not relentlessly cruelly mocked about her physical appearance and what had been a bubbly personality, she submitted to gang rape by several members of the high school football team gang in a garage. The cheerleaders knew it would happen. Evidently, it had been a plan they were in on. Who thinks stuff like that up? Middle class kids in an All-American high school, mostly conservative parents. I mean, when Rush Limbaugh kept putting then 12 year old Chelsea Clinton’s picture up when he was talking about the White House Dog, I thought, this guy’s gone. No he’s a gazillionaire. I was on a plane recently – I was sitting next to a lady and we were talking about movies, shows. She told me she started watching a show because Rush recommended it. OK, you’re probably not intending to get girls raped – but it’s the same tone and words, and they’re both a shaming to manipulate an end, but what if you don’t have control of the end?

Here’s the thing. I intensely dislike Obama as president. Not for the reasons you do. Among other things, I think he’s hip deep in AIPAC’s pocket just like Carter, Clinton, Reagan and Bush 1 and 2. I think that in part, because outside of the American press that pretty much seems more interested in manufacturing controversy than reporting facts, pretty much the entire world thinks that about Obama too, even after the speeches, including several members of the Israeli press. And as much as I don’t care for Netanyahu, Arafat was a pig and Abbas and the rest of them aren’t much better.

My friend Juliano is dead. He was of mixed parentage (Israeli mother, Christian Palestinian father) and he ran a theater for kids in the Jenin refugee camp. You can’t believe the poverty and the degradation until you go there, and then you can’t believe anyone allows it to happen at all, for any reason - it'll redefine what you think terrorism is. So it's unbelievable there’s this theater and it was incredible, but, y'know, this guy believed in peace and the arts, so not anymore. And what I think is all those men above, and me and you, we all killed him because none of us are really interested in what in compromise (on either side) and none of us really want to give up anything for peace, even to put an end to that awfulness. So amazing thing that seemed to make people forget what it was like to be in that wretched place and suggest another possibility, stuff like that just gets wiped out.

So I was/am angry. Very, very angry. And it was kind of addicitng to give voice to it. But, I dunno, not after tonight. I give up. And it wasn’t warranted. I just came across you (oddly linked from some liberal site) and you were in the line of fire.

Oh, I had thought I was banned because it wouldn’t upload based on my old username, but me leaping erroneously to angry conclusions isn’t the opposite of McHenry. You should delete my posts if you want – they don’t add anything to the world.

I'm sorry for my behavior. Bye.

[George Pal]

ChezJake,

How exotic you are! An anarcho-syndicalist! I had never come across one - except in dusty old books.

Take a bit of advice. Take the world off your shoulders. You are not responsible for it nor am I. We are answerable for what we make of our little corners of the world. Make that small area where you are better and you will have met your responsibilities - and will be happier for it.

[Lloyd Mintern]

I think you have a major problem with your font sizes, and color selections.

[MOTUS]

Man oh man Mrs. P, you get all the luck. 20th Century Fox "employees" trolling your site while, I presume, on the time clock! My MOLs would love to play with them.

Being a fun loving mirror, I'd send their IPs to 20th Century Fox along with their comments and post times! Butt then, I work as part of a team that is really good at dirty tricks.

BTW: @trolls, nobody who believes in the 1st Amendment like Mrs. P bans you for you idiotic comments. We have a sense of humor and you make us laugh.

Hugs & ♥s,
M

[creeper]

That's the craziest troll I've seen in months. I tried to read that nine-mile-long post but had to give up. My synapses aren't wired right for gibberish.

Nicely done, MOTUS! Very creative.

[Pink Flamingo]

Gibberish is a kind description creeper. Butt Mr 20th Century Fox had two good points:

"I intensely dislike Obama as president."
Whatever those reasons are, you have lots of company.

and:
"You should delete my posts if you want – they don’t add anything to the world."
You got that right sparky.
Buh bye!

[Madame DeFarge]

It always makes me wonder what O'Trolls believe they will accomplish taking up space on a site obviously not under the spell of O'BooBoo.

I agree that it's a disgrace that people have been in refugee camps, used as political pawns by their own people for generations. And with all those oil billions their "brothers" hold out on them. I seem to recall that the Jews were in refugee camps after WWII yet given a tiny spot of land, they developed a thriving nation. Pity their attackers don't give their energies to the same effort rather than lobbing missiles into their neighbor's yard.

[Sablegsd]

Bibi was a very good looking young warrior.

Zero,a limp wristed, light in the loafers drug user.

Bibi could take zero out in 30 seconds or less. I would pay money to see that.